Jeff Galloway to Run 200th Marathon on 70th Birthday

Runners consider Jeff Galloway[4] one of the most recognizable figures in the sport, according to a recent Running USA survey.

Over the course of his lifetime, he became an Olympian with legends like Frank Shorter[5] and Steve Prefontaine, clocked a 2:16:35 personal best in the marathon, and broke the American 10-mile record in 1973. He also opened up one of the country’s first running specialty stores in Atlanta, authored a best-selling book titled Galloway’s Book on Running, and devised his famous run-walk-run training method, which has since been used by hundreds of thousands of runners.

On Sunday at the Missoula Marathon in Montana, Galloway wants to add two more milestones to the list: He plans to finish his 200th marathon on his 70th birthday.

“I don’t focus on birthdays normally,” Galloway said. “But when there’s a zero [in your age] and then a seven in front of that zero, for most people, that is a time in their life when they tend to back off a lot of physical things. I don’t buy into that. Runners don't seem to act their age, and I hope that I don’t.”

The timing of the two events worked out perfectly, but only with a bit of schedule reshuffling.

“Not many marathons coincide with your birthday,” said Galloway, who realized in January that the Missoula Marathon landed on his birthday. He knew he’d be attending the marathon as a special guest and that he’d be close to notching his 200th marathon around the same time. To make the momentous occasions line up, he added the Estes Park Marathon in June to his race calendar, which has included about a marathon per month for the last eight years alongside his wife, Barbara.

Galloway has run the Missoula Marathon four times and considers it one of his favorites because he has a personal connection to the race—he spent the summer of 1971 in the town while he attended a United States Olympic Committee training camp.

“I absolutely fell in love with the place,” he said. “I experimented with a number of training ideas out there, some of which I incorporated into my [Olympic] pursuit the next year. I have great, fond memories from Missoula.”

For his 200th marathon—he completed his first marathon in 1963 at the inaugural Atlanta Marathon—Galloway said he has no time goal. He just wants to “enjoy every mile.”

“I’ve given up my competitive urges and time goals for the most part,” said Galloway, who noted that completing 26.2 miles surrounded by family and friends is enough. “There is something special about doing a marathon,” he said. “It’s never easy, and you come away exhilarated every time.”

Galloway anticipates Sunday’s effort will be even more meaningful.

“I have been looking forward to this and telling people with pride that, on my 70th, I’m going to run a marathon,” he said. “It symbolizes so much of the work that I do in trying to empower others to empower themselves.”

Galloway credits running for his clean slate when it comes to health issues and added that he’s run uninjured for more than 30 years. He plans to keep running marathons until he turns 100.

“After that, I’m going to re-evaluate,” he said. “But I am just so grateful for finding running, which I discovered inadvertently as a fat, 13-year-old kid in 1958. Within a couple of weeks, it totally changed the way I looked at life and myself. That has continued to this day, so this weekend is a celebration of what running has done for me and so many others.”